Chances are, you're a fan of Mario. You've probably played every Mario game you could get your hands on. That means you've probably played the thousands of Mario fan-games on the internet, for better or worse, mostly worse. The vast majority of the time, they are uncreative, boring, dry, and thrown together in the time span of a weekend. You can just feel the lack of work put into a Mario fan game the minute you being playing it.

Recognizing that this is a clear problem, a couple of people banded together, and put together one of the greatest Mario fan games to date, and probably for a long time to come. That game is Super Mario Bros. X, a worthy tribute to the world's most recognizable video game star.

The presentation is very nice. The title screen shows the five playable characters racing by with some high-energy Mario music playing. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, and Link (?!) are the playable cast in this game. You can customize your controls as you see fit, choosing between a keyboard or gamepad. You can choose the default episode or download the others from the website.

Everything should start out feeling pretty familiar. You'll start out seeing a Super Mario Bros. 3 map, and upon entering a level, you'll see the used-in-every-Mario-fan-game Mario All-Stars sprite-set (Unless you chose Link, of course). This is where the familiarity between unofficial Mario games ends, and where the familiarity between nearly every Mario game to date comes in.

From Super Mario World we have Item Storage and Yoshi's; from Super Mario Bros. 3 we have the power-ups; from Super Mario Bros. 2 we have lifting and throwing; from Super Mario 64 we have the Stars; from the Mario RPGs we have clever dialogue; from Super Mario Galaxy 2 we have the nice difficulty curve, from New Super Mario Bros. Wii we have simultaneous multiplayer.

This, my friends, is one heck of a game. And although the game borrows elements from past Mario games, that doesn't mean that it doesn't have a few features to call its own.

If you play multiplayer, the first you'll probably notice is that your overzealous friend will try to run ahead of you with reckless abandon, and you're no doubt worried that the screen is going to try and fit both of you on it at once. Only, this is not the case. The screen splits into two, becoming Split screen in a moment's notice. Not a bad feature; this means the both of you can go explore around on your own.

There are also some new breeds of Yoshi in there. All of the Yoshi's retain their Turtle-shell induced power ups from Super Mario World, such as flight and fire breath, but the new Yoshi's have new power ups such as coughing up vegetables instead of your ingested foes.

Some new abilities include the Billy Gun, a portable Bullet Bill launcher, and Bowser's Clown Car is ready to be taken for a spin.

The game is not without some flaws though. Real Mario fanatics will be able to point out some difference in game physics, and some levels could use some work. From a personal standpoint, I needed a spring to reach a star, and I found one, but when I left the screen and came back, the spring was gone, and I had to start over.

Overall though, this is a great Mario fan game that stands out high above the rest. This was not thrown together in 15 seconds like most Mario fan games, and is probably the best Mario fan game available. Highly Recommended.